Origin of nominalising morphology.

[Gordon Whittaker]

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Guy,

You pose a very interesting question, which I hope will provoke a fruitful
discussion. As for the parallel of English -ing with German -ung, you should
be careful to distinguish two English morphemes. Only the abstract noun suffix
-ing is cognate with the German equivalent in -ung. Unless I am mistaken, the
participial suffix -ing ~ -in' is the result of the falling together of an
original participial -end (as in German) with the -ing nominal suffix. If I am
wrong here, I am sure someone can clarify the issue.

Best,
Gordon

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Prof. Dr. Gordon Whittaker
Seminar fuer Romanische Philologie
Humboldtallee 19
37073 Goettingen
Germany
tel.: 0551-39 41 88 (office)
tel./fax: 05594-89 333 (home)
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